Computer speakers, or multimedia speakers, are external speakers, commonly equipped with a low-power internal amplifier.

Headset is a headphone combined with a microphone. Headsets provide the equivalent functionality of a telephone handset with hands-free operation.

Choosing the right Speakers or a Headset

Choosing the right Speakers

If your computer is used for primarily for word processing, surfing the web, sending e-mail, and storing digital pictures, you’ll be able to get by with simple magnetically shielded, powered speakers. These computer speakers can be purchased for as little as 20 to 30 US Dollars (USD).

If you’re an avid gamer or frequently use your computer to listen to music and watch DVD movies, you’ll want to look for a three-piece system featuring a ported sub-woofer. However, if you have a sound card or high quality onboard sound that is set for 3D sound, a system with up to six separate speakers could be a worthwhile investment. Computer speakers, suitable for gaming and other home entertainment uses can cost up to 200 USD.

Choosing the right Headset

A good PC gaming headset is almost a must if you want to have the best gaming experience. Most games nowadays are embedded with high definition audio effects. Look at these characteristics when choosing your headset.


Comfort

A good computer gaming headset must be able to provide comfort to the user. This is necessary since you will be wearing it for a long period of time. There is only one way to test whether a headset is comfortable or not, and that is to try it out before you make your purchase. 

Most of the time, the comfort factor is dependent on the:

• Padding - Is it thick and soft enough to protect your ear?


• Ear cups - Is it big enough to contain your ear?


• Headband - Is it freely adjustable to suit the size of your head?


• Weight - Is it too heavy for your ear to carry?

Put it on for 15 minutes and you will know whether it is suitable for you or not. You can also get a general idea of comfort from reviews.

Sound Quality

A good PC gaming headset must have the ability to produce great sound quality. While different people perceive sound differently, you can use these few guideline to distinguish a headset with good sound quality from a bad one. 

Bass

A gaming headset with a powerful bass will show significant differences in first person shooting game such as Counterstrike. You will be able to hear clearly the bullets flying around you and distinct explosion in the background. 

Surround Sound 

Surround sound effect is necessary to create the realism in your game play. Those PC gaming headsets with 5.1 digital audio encoded will be useful to help you identify the enemy that is sneaking behind you or shooting at you 

Noise Cancellation 

Some gaming headset uses an external microphone to pick up external noise and invert them to cancel out any unwanted noise. This is extremely useful if you are always playing in a noisy environment, such as an Internet cafe. 

Cable Length

The cable length will determine how far away you can stay behind the screen. A typical gaming headset should have a cable length of 2m. Anything shorter than this length will restrict your movement and cause inconvenience to you.

Wireless Headset

If you always move around and do not wish to be bothered by the cable, you can choose the wireless gaming headset that makes use of Bluetooth or RF technology. A word of caution, wireless headsets might be more prone to noise interference and/or loss of signal during the transmission, which can lead to static, pops or annoying noise. 

Microphone

Its good to get a headset with clear sounding microphone.

What one should i get?

Well choosing between owning speakers or a headset is mostly preference. However, keep these things in mind.

Two Ears, eight speakers surround sound drama

Consider surround sound, for instance. If you've got 5.1 channels of audio (the 0.1 is the restricted-frequency-range sub woofer channel), then obviously five speakers and a sub, correctly set up, is the best way to reproduce it, right? Not exactly, perfect speaker setup can take a while, however with headphones there is little configuration, and for some surround sound, particularly 3D positional computer audio, headphones can actually work better than speakers.  3D game audio uses Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) algorithms to fake the effects of various listening environments, so that injecting the sound straight into the ear canal can produce the impression of real 3D audio sources. When you've got HRTF-massaged two-channel audio already, for instance when you're playing a game, headphones are obviously the best way to get the sound into your head. There's no way for speakers to do the job as well, because there's no way for them to stop each ear hearing the sound that's intended for the other.

The thing that makes speakers lousy for HRTF surround sound is also the thing that makes them good for music. Music is, almost always, mixed to sound good through stereo speakers. It's assumed that quite a lot of the left channel will be audible to your right ear, and vice versa. Because headphones don't do this, music through them generally sounds as if it's all happening inside your skull. There's no stereo sound stage out there in front of you. For this reason, even very good headphones can become quite fatiguing to listen to, after a while. Generally, the more different the two stereo channels are, the more tiring it'll be to listen to them for hours on end through headphones.

Bass

Good headphones commonly have excellent bass response, but their teeny little drivers don't move bulk air like a big speaker. Your ears hear just as much bass as a speaker can deliver, but the rest of you remains unmoved. For ordinary headphone listening, the lack of floorboard-shaking bass is a problem that can't be overcome.

Isolation

Closed-back headsets; the music-loving friend. Speakers can only try to drown out ambient noise. Sealed headphones block it out.

Microphone

With speakers you will need a stand alone MIC which can create echoes when your talking. The headset is far superior if you are planning on doing a lot of chatting online.